authorized imposition of deprivations —
of freedom or privacy or other goods to which the person otherwise has a
right, or the imposition of special burdens” — because the person has been
found guilty of some criminal violation. The progress of civilization has
resulted in a change in the theory and in the method of punishment.

In primitive society punishment was left to
the individuals wronged or their families, and was vindictive or retributive:
in quantity and quality it would bear no special relation to the character or
gravity of the offense. The second stage was punishment by individuals under
the control of the state, or community; in the third stage, with the growth of
law, the state took over the primitive function and provided itself with the
machinery of justice for the maintenance of public order.

Modern theories date from the 18th
century, when the humanitarian movement began to teach the dignity of the
individual and to emphasize his rationality and responsibility. The result was
the reduction of punishment both in quantity and in severity, the improvement
of the prison system, and the first attempts to study the psychology of crime
and to distinguish between classes of criminals with a view to their improvement.
These latter problems are the sphere of criminal anthropology and criminal
sociology, sciences so called because they view crime as the outcome of
anthropological and social conditions. The law breaker is himself a product of
social evolution and cannot be regarded as solely responsible for his
disposition to transgress.

There are many possible reasons that might
be given to justify or explain why someone ought to be punished.

Deterrence. To act as a measure
of prevention to those who are contemplating criminal activity.

Rehabilitation. Some punishment includes
work to reform and rehabilitate

the wrongdoer so that they will not commit
the offense again. This is distinguished not from deterrence, in that the goal
here is to change the offender's attitude to what they have done, and make them
come to see that their behavior was wrong.

Incapacitation / Societal protection.
Incapacitation is a justification of punishment that refers to when the
offender’s ability to commit further offenses is removed. This can occur in one
of two ways; the offender’s ability to commit crime can be physically removed,
or the offender can be geographically removed.

Restoration. For minor offences, punishment
may take the form of the offender "righting the wrong"; for example,
a vandal might be made to clean up the mess he/she has made. In more serious
cases, punishment in the form of fines and compensation payments may also be
considered a sort of "restoration".

Retribution is the practice of
"getting even" with a wrongdoer — the suffering of the wrongdoer
is seen as good in itself, even if it has no other benefits. One reason for
modern centrally-organized societies to include this judicial element is to
diminish the need for "street justice", blood feud and vigilantism. However,
some argue that this is a "zero sum game”, that such acts of street
justice and blood revenge are not removed from society, but responsibility for
carrying them out is merely transferred to the state. Retribution sets an
important standard on punishment — the transgressor must get what he deserves,
but no more. Therefore, a thief put to death is not retribution; a murderer put
to death is. One great difficulty of this approach is that of judging exactly
what it is that the transgressor "deserves".

Education. From German Criminal Law,
Punishment can be explained by positive prevention theory to use criminal
justice system to teach people what are the social norms for what is correct
and acts as a reinforcement. It teaches people to obey the law and eliminates
the free-rider principle of people not obeying the law getting away with it.

Denunciation / Condemnation. Punishment can
serve as a means for society to publicly express condemnation of a crime. This
serves the dual function of curbing public anger away from vigilant justice,
while concurrently stigmatizing the condemned in an effort to deter future
criminal activity.

B3. Make up 5 questions on the text and put
them to your group mates.

C. VOCABULARY

C1. Use one of the words to complete the
sentences.

1. Single mothers
often feel that they are

by society.

a) diminished b) stigmatized c)
eliminated

2. The party's share of the electorate has

steadily.

a) diminished b) degraded c) discarded

3. The

of taxation has risen considerably.

a) gravity b) dignity c) burden

4. Please remain

at all times and report anything
suspicious.

a) vindictive b) vigilant c) conducive

5. And doctors
and governments alike are debating how to excesses of drug promotion.

D1. WORD FORMATION. Use the word given in
parentheses to form a word that fits in the space.

A fitting punishment

Malacca, Sunday. It
was a long and (exhaust) 1

day for 34 youths

who had planned to take part in illegal
motorcycle races. The police were

able to catch the motorcyclists as a result
of (complain) 2

which

they had received about the noise they made. The police had been
(suspect)

3

(permit) 4

for several days as the motorcyclists had
been racing without

.
There had also been a lot of (critic) 5

of their wild and
threatening (behave) 6 go near them.

, and people were afraid to

The police made the motorcyclists push
their heavy machines to the police station over 10 kilometres away. 'Although
the youths had a lot of expensive

(equip) 7 (defect) 8

on their bikes, the brakes on most of them
there and very unsafe,' a police officer said.

'We held the races because we were (bore) 9

and wanted some

kind of (entertain) 10

one of the motorcyclists said. 'The police

should have behaved in a more (reason) 11 youth said. 'However, we
should be (thank) 12 haven't taken our motorbikes away,' he added.

way,' another that they

E. PROJECT WORK

E1. What kinds of punishment do you know? Work
in pairs or in small groups. Make a list of types of punishment. Compare your
lists with those of your classmates.

E2. In group make a list of key terms
relating to punishment. F. DISCUSSION

F1. Was justice done?

Here are some examples of crimes and the
penalties chosen by particular judges. Read through them and try to answer the
following questions:

- Was justice done?

- If you had been the
judge, would you have given a different sentence?

- What other facts and
circumstances would you have wanted to know?

Shop-lifting

In June 1980 Lady Isabell Barnett, a
well-known TV personality was

convicted of stealing a tin of tuna fish
and a carton of cream, total value 87p,

from a small shop. The case was given
enormous publicity. She was fined

£75 and had to pay £200 towards
the cost of the case. A few days later she killed herself.

Assault

In 1976 a drunk walked into a supermarket. When
the manager asked him to

leave, the drunk assaulted him, knocking
out a tooth. The policeman who arrived and tried to stop the fight had his jaw
broken. The drunk was fined

£10.

Mercy killing

A mother who killed her brain-damaged son
with heroin has been sentenced

to a minimum of nine years behind bars for
his murder but she called it an act of mercy.

Aggravated assault

In 2007 an off-duty Chicago police officer
Anthony Abbate was convicted of

aggravated assault for battering a female
bartender half his size. A tavern security video shows a drunken, 250-pound
Abbate punching and kicking the

125-pound Karolina Obrycka. The altercation
happened after she refused to serve him more drinks. Abbate was sentenced to
two years probation, a home curfew of 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and 130 hours of
community service. "If I believed sentencing Anthony Abbate to prison
would stop people from getting drunk and hitting people, I'd give him the
maximum sentence," the judge Fleming said.

G. WRITING

G1. In pairs find the synonyms to the
entries taken from the text (in the

box). Write
two/three sentences using them.

Large-scale surveys of victims and
self-report surveys of criminals provided data on crime and criminals
independent of police and correctional records.